1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an image forming apparatus, and more specifically to an image forming apparatus including a recording head that ejects liquid droplets.
2. Description of the Background Art
Image forming apparatuses are used as printers, facsimile machines, copiers, plotters, or multi-functional devices having two or more of the foregoing capabilities. As one type of image forming apparatus employing a liquid-ejection recording method, an inkjet recording apparatus is known that uses a recording head having a liquid ejection head (liquid-droplet ejection head) for ejecting droplets of ink.
Such liquid-ejection-type image forming apparatuses fall into two main types: a serial-type image forming apparatus that forms an image by ejecting droplets from the recording head while moving the recording head in a main scanning direction of the carriage, and a line-head-type image forming apparatus that forms an image by ejecting droplets from a linear-shaped recording head held stationary in the image forming apparatus.
In the serial-type image forming apparatus, a carriage may mount a recording head and a carriage circuit board, e.g., a relay board to relay between a driving circuit to drive the recording head and a control circuit board implemented as a control circuit to control the entire image forming apparatus. The control circuit board and the carriage circuit board are connected via, e.g., a flexible flat cable (FFC), and the carriage circuit board and the recording head are connected via, e.g., an FFC equipped with a driving circuit.
In such a case, the carriage circuit board is vertically disposed along the back face of the carriage, and the flexible flat cable is also vertically extended along the flat face of the carriage circuit board, that is, the flat face of the flexible flat cable is vertically disposed.
However, in the above-described configuration, when the flexible flat cable is installed in the image forming apparatus, the flexible flat cable is not accessible from the upper side of the image forming apparatus. Such a configuration makes it difficult to install the flexible flat cable to connect the recording head and the carriage circuit board, thus hindering smooth installation.
In addition, in maintenance work, such as removal of the flexible flat cable from the carriage circuit board and cleaning of an encoder sensor on the carriage circuit board, an operator cannot easily access the carriage circuit board and the encoder sensor, thus hindering smooth maintenance work.
At the back side of the carriage is also provided a metal sheet member, e.g., a rear stay forming part of a frame of the image forming apparatus. While face-to-face contacting the sheet metal, the flexible flat cable is guided and deformed in accordance with movement of the carriage. However, contacting the flexible flat cable and the sheet metal over a relatively large area tends to cause noise in the flexible flat cable.